ORANGES. 291 



which the body of the skin is composed is almost 

 as good a barrier against both heat and cold, as 

 the fur on an animal, or the down on a bird. In 

 consequence of that, the orange tribe, where they 

 are uninjured when pricked, and kept out of the 

 circumstances which resemble those in which an 

 orange would prepare for growing in the soil, can 

 be carried uninjured to greater distances and into 

 a greater variety of climates than any other fruit. 

 It is very different with the northern berries ; 

 none of them will keep their flavour, and few their 

 form for a week ; the strawberry is vapid the se- 

 cond day if fully ripe when gathered, and the 

 raspberry is injured in an hour even in shorter 

 time if the weather is very warm. All those are 

 covered by mere pellicles, as tender and easily 

 ruptured as they are thin ; and more strength is 

 not required for them, as the term of their exist- 

 . ence is very short, and the season is mild and 

 comparatively uniform all the time they are pass- 

 ing from the blossom bud to the ripened fruit. 

 Not so with the tropical fruits. The trees which 

 produce them have no winter of repose, and there- 

 fore the progress of their fructification is much 

 less rapid. Generally speaking, they remain two 

 years on the twigs, and thus they enjoy both the 

 dry season and the wet ; and in all cases where 

 they do so, we find that they are provided with 

 means of protection from the intense action of the 

 sun ; and even when they come more rapidly to 

 maturity, we still find the shining rind or capsule. 

 Even if there is a shell, and that a hard and tough 

 one, we find an external protection, as in the coire 

 which is between the external rind of the cocoa- 

 c c 2 



